La Croix explores change and evolution in Hawaii’s fundamental political, legal, and economic institutions over eight centuries. To the average reader, these topics are unfamiliar and not well explored. Historians, anthropologists, and scholars in ethnic studies have conducted some work in this area, but to my knowledge, this is the first endeavor by an economist to account for political and economic change and outcomes in Hawaii. Thus, this book is novel in perspective and analytical methods.
La Croix starts by providing a good overview of Hawaii in the pre-contact era from an archaeological, anthropological, and demographic viewpoint, using the extensive research in these areas to inform readers about settlement, family, and early political structures. He also explores the environmental transformation that occurred during the settling of the Hawaiian Islands by its first peoples. He relies to some extent on Native Hawaiian cultural and historical perspectives but only from sources that...